hey lets talk about white privilege!

what can go wrong?

some background: i was asked by a student to share my experience on one of the most infamous days in UCSC’s Community Studies (CMMU) history.  CMMU is similar to Sociology except w/out focus on stats and at its core there’s a 6-month internship.  And before the internship, we take a class called “prep for field-study” which was anything but that.  The class had 100+ students.  Like most universities, lotta kids from privileged/middle-upper class backgrounds.

The exercise was on unpacking white privilege.  It was the lead TA’s idea.  He’s a white, hetero male, and came from a privileged background.  I took a class with him before, real cooo guy but lacking in terms of racial understanding.  I was the not only the only Asian person but the only person of color in that class.  i did a presentation and made a comment about how most people think like Trent Lott (“the US would have avoided “all these problems” if then-segregationist Strom Thurmond had been elected president in 1948″).  In the sense that they have racist tendencies but hide it very well in this pc culture and are quick to apologize w/out fully understanding what they said/did.  No one agreed w/ me.

A week before, the TA asked students to raise their hands if they identify themselves as “people of color” (for convenience’s sake will be known as “poc”).   I’d say 1/5 of the class raised their hand.  It was awkward and discomforting to be put on the spot like that.

For the exercise, we were split into three groups: white, poc, and mixed heritage.  One of the students approached him after class and informed him s/he didn’t identify as poc or white since s/he was mixed; if that didn’t happen it would’ve only been two groups.  And immediately people reacted defensively, some left class and the people who stayed were visibly upset or frustrated.

The white group was split into three or four since they’re the majority.

There was about 15 in poc group that I was in.  There was a lot of tension and hostility in my group.  All of us have experienced some form of racism and discriminations, all have heard ignorant comments by oblivious white students.  Being in spaces where white males dominated discussion.  To say pocs feel defensive is an understatement.  A comment by a poc I remembered, “they put us into different groups, to help white students feel comfortable with talking about these issues”.

We regrouped as one big group and instead of talking about the topic at hand (white privilege), most people were still talking about logistics and the format of the exercise.  For about 20 mins, people still complained.  Some comments from white students, “we all have privilege”, “I’m not white, I’m Jewish”.  I commented on the first comment, pointing out that it’s not all relative, that certain groups clearly have more privilege than others which has been the basic structures of American society since its inception.  You’d think that it’d be obvious for a Social Science major but my experiences say otherwise.

And as class was nearing its end, people were still frustrated and no one talked about their experiences with white privilege.  The facilitator in my group was urging us to speak up and no one would.  So I got up and talked about how white students refused to pronounce my name; instead asking for a shorter name.

The “exercise” exposed what’s clearly lacking in the department and higher education in general.  We shouldn’t be discussing white privilege in a prep for Field Study class, it should happen long before that.  The TA overlook this simple fact:

students will get defensive when it questions their foundation.

In this case, their own white privilege.  How dare you make me think about something I never had to talk about UNTIL NOW? The flip side is white liberal guilt which is another topic in itself and equally unhelpful in personal transformation.  There are a lot of students are a CMMU major simply cuz they think it’s an easy major and a study abroad program; like it’s an opportunity to travel for them.  I heard this from an advisor.  Also, students are quick to criticize but rarely say anything constructive.  I was guilty of that too; thinking analysis = criticism.

The class imploded and they had to revamp the course for next year.  Some students stop comin to class even though attendance was mandatory.  And white students continually get a free pass on unchecked privileges.  There are many exceptions of course, those that do the work by Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack